And Forward
by manitounell
Summary: "Why don't you trust me?" he asked. Tag for episode 4.16, Mites and Men.


_**And Forward**_

Tag 4:16, _Mites and Men_.

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_These tags/short stories started out as bits of fun for me, so it has been so lovely to see that there are still readers for Jo/Zane out here, in the wilds of a dying fandom. Your comments always mean a great deal to me, and if I haven't acknowledged them, it's because I'm still fighting a bit with the interface here at . I'm not finding it intuitive at all. And I wish I could reply publicly to each review, but that, sadly, doesn't seem possible. (I'm not even super good with making minor edits, the multi-step process means, apparently, that I inevitably screw some portion of it up.)_

_As for this story, here is actually a tiny bit of plot, and this fic wasn't supposed to be porn, but, it mostly is. It was supposed to be another little bridge between one episode and the next, as I tease out to my own satisfaction how Jo and Zane's onscreen relationship evolved while they were 'off stage,' so to speak, and in a way that relates to/builds toward the set up of each new episode. Trying to get inside their heads, as they danced around stubbornly refusing to name their own relationship or use their words. The porn in this just - happened. (Rather like sex did for them, I suppose. As the inspiration so the fic, or something...!)_

_Thank you all for reading - Nell._

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When he heard the water stop running in his bathroom, Zane gave up trying to make any further progress on his report about how his 'mites had been fried. He was already on his bed, the blankets folded back, propped up against the pillows, not writing so much as staring blankly at his tablet and waiting for Jo anyway.

Larry had waylaid her on their way out of Café Diem. He'd wanted her for 'just one more thing, Ms. Lupo' as clean up from today's disaster continued. A disaster that was the inevitable result of being rushed to impossible time schedules. Not that they couldn't make it. GD had an enviable record for pulling off the impossible. They would, but at the price of awe-inspiring cost overruns that were chewing through even as phenomenal as sum as twenty billion dollars at an amazing rate. And there would be more near disasters. Or real disasters. Most of which could be avoided if they could just slow down and take their time, follow well-known safety guidelines.

He got that many people believed that NASA had choked itself on safety protocols after the Challenger disaster back in '86, and then again after the Columbia in 2003. But GD was swinging too damn far in the other direction right now.

Not that anyone had asked his opinion, or would care if he offered it unasked, soon-to-be-pardoned felon (fingers crossed) or no. So he'd come home and showered and now he was focusing on his construction mites. Or trying too. Jo had arrived just after he got out of the shower and said she'd join him shortly. Then she'd disappeared into the bathroom.

"Hey," she said.

He looked up and broke into a grin. She was naked. Gloriously naked. Her hair was spilling over her shoulders, wavy from the humidity of her shower, a few damp tendrils curling against her cheekbones. She was, in his opinion, beautiful all the time. But especially when she was nude.

Nudity also meant that she wasn't very interested in preliminaries tonight. Which, fair enough. It'd been a hell of a day for all of them, but her day had begun in the middle of the night the day before. He'd even been mildly surprised when she accepted his invitation to come over. He'd've understood completely if she'd wanted to just go home and crash.

He put his tablet aside.

She crawled onto the mattress, swung one leg over his lap, slipped her fingers into his hair and bent her head to kiss him.

Under his roaming palms her skin was still warm from her shower. Her mouth was hot and her kisses greedy. Too soon, in his view, she moved on from his mouth, peppering kisses along his temples, his cheeks, his jaw, then down his throat to his shoulders, slipping backwards and out of his grasp as she worked her way down his chest to his cock.

He was already semi-hard, just seeing her naked could do that to him, and his erection was growing quickly. But not quickly enough for her. She dropped wet kisses from his balls to the tip and then closed her mouth over him, her tongue busy as she suckled hard.

Zane fought to keep his eyes open. He loved watching her go down on him. Sensation won out, however, as it usually did. His eyelids drifted closed. His cock grew heavier as more blood rushed into it in response to her attentions.

Soon enough, and again too soon, she pulled back, apparently satisfied with her efforts, and reached for a condom.

Her rolling a condom down his cock was also pretty damn hot. So was her breathy gasp and then the shudder that wracked her whole body as she arched and slid down on him, pulling him deep inside her.

Basically, everything about sex with Jo was hot.

So hot that he usually wanted everything to last a little longer, go a little slower. When they had the time, persuading Jo to slow down was one of his favorite things to do.

Tonight that was clearly not on the agenda. Neither was a blowjob.

A few weeks ago he asked her why she'd quit finishing him off orally at night. Blowjobs had turned into a weekend morning thing only, except for that one time, well, both, well, okay, those random times at work. Jo really was amazing.

She'd smiled one of those smiles where her eyes lit up and her lips curled, hints of teasing laughter lurking somewhere in the tilt of her head. "You had three chances, babe, and fell asleep afterwards without reciprocating each time. If I'm going to use a vibrator to fall asleep myself, I don't really need you around, do I?"

He'd conceded the point with what he sincerely hoped was a charmingly roguish grin.

"Hi," she said, when she opened her eyes again.

"Hi," he replied, and sat up to kiss her, his hands sliding around her fine ass, fingers flexing as he pulled her closer, rocking her hips across his own.

It was his turn now to kiss her brow, her cheeks, her neck, as he worked his way down to her breasts. He kissed each in turn, careful to make sure that he paid equal attention to both, with lips and tongue and teeth, loving the quiet sounds she was making as she started rising and falling, riding up and down on him, small movements still but growing in intensity, her arms strong as she balanced herself on his shoulders.

He lifted his head at last, pleased with the hard, pink tips of her nipples, and found she was looking back at him. She raised her hands to hold his face, her thumbs gently stroking his cheekbones, her expression serious. Almost sad. "I'm really glad we weren't crushed today."

So was he. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into a tight embrace, so close he could feel her heart beating against his chest, hoping that somehow she would understand all the words he couldn't bring himself to say. Dying with Jo might be all romantic and shit, but he really wanted to live a long, full life with her first. Assuming she wanted the same thing as he did. Only he still wasn't sure if she did or didn't, and he was too much of a coward to want to hear her say no. So he wasn't asking. Not yet.

She was holding him just as tightly, but she didn't say anything either. She just started rocking again.

"Jo?"

"Mm?" Her eyes were closed and her face was still with concentration, her hips rising and falling, driving his cock so deep he could feel the edge of her cervix on each down stroke.

He raised his hand to push her hair aside so he could see her face. "Why don't you trust me?"

"I…um." She stopped moving and opened her eyes. "What?"

"You said you were almost starting to trust me."

She sank back down, resting in his lap, his twitching cock still deep inside her. Which made it a little hard to concentrate, but now that he'd asked, he really wanted an answer.

"Now you want to talk?" He eyebrows were arching almost to her hairline.

To his surprise, he did. "Yeah."

After a long moment while she examined his face, she said, "Okay."

She started to shift her weight, but he caught her waist and held her place.

"No, no. Stay where you are."

He leaned into the pillows behind him, braced his heels against the mattress and thrust up, rocking her off balance enough that she had to fall forward again, back into his arms.

"You want to have a conversation about trust while fucking?" she sounded amused. Fortunately.

"I can multi-task." He leaned up and pressed butterfly kisses along her neck, palming one of her breasts at the same time.

She dropped her head back and laughed quietly.

He kept thrusting, slow and steady, his hand on her ass holding her snugly against him, his mouth busy with hers. Then he sought out her clit, familiar now with the shape and feel of her so he could find it by touch alone, stroking faster as her hips picked up speed. He waited until she was grinding back against his fingers, moaning breathily about how good he felt, how good he made her feel. Then he stopped moving. "So?" he asked.

"Really?" Jo didn't whine often, but now she definitely was.

"Yes." He moved his fingers. She pressed into him. He stopped again.

"Context," she said, obviously irritated. "It's all about context."

She bucked her hips against him, urging him back to action.

He didn't move. "What does that mean?"

She sighed. She pressed her hands into his chest and levered herself up enough to meet his gaze. "Here?" she swiveled her hips, making her meaning plain, and his cock swelled just a little more, "I trust you. Completely." She bounced impatiently. "Stop stopping!"

He resumed stroking her clit. "Good to know."

Having picked on his game, she didn't pause. "When it comes to your own work? Trust you completely."

"Also good to know." He grinned and pressed her ass close again and started thrusting.

"Your judgment about when is a good time to play a prank? No. I don't trust you. At all."

"Okay." That smarted, but he'd earned it the hard way. "I get all that. But. Is that really what you meant?"

"Yes. It was."

She hadn't quite met his eyes. He went completely still again. "Jo?"

She scowled at him, sitting back into her heels and crossing her arms over her chest. "You let me think, let Parish and Holly and Fargo think, that I couldn't pass the test on my own. Now they'll always have doubts. So will I."

"I'm really sorry." He was. He'd gotten caught up in the game, and wanted to make sure he was as assy to Jo as to the rest. He went for the easiest hit without thinking it through.

"I trusted you when you told me I could learn the math."

And now he heard the hurt again, the same note in her voice as in the isolation chamber. And he remembered her happy dance, the brilliant smile of triumph on her face when she read her score for the first time. And he felt like a complete bastard. It amazed him that she was even here, much less naked and in his bed.

He caught her head in his hands, holding her so he could fix his eyes on hers. "And you did. Jo. You passed the test. That score is all yours. Take it again tomorrow if you want. Long form. Pencil and paper and get Henry to score it."

She didn't fight him, but she didn't move either. "So you could do it? Hack the test bank, fix my test or my score, and cover up your tracks well enough to never get caught?"

He thought about lying, but even he could anticipate that the consequences of that were clearly worse than telling the truth. "Yes."

"See?"

"I'm really good with computers, Jo. But I am even better at being a jerk. And being a jerk was my job today."

She glowered at him. "You totally nailed it. Bang up job, Donovan."

He was too discomfited to know how to hold her eyes, so he dropped his gaze to the sheets beside them.

She leaned forward, bracing herself with her hands on the pillow beside his head, her breasts and hair tickling his chest. "And then," she murmured into his ear, her breath trickling over his skin, "you got the door open enough that we could save our lives."

"Yeah?"

She kissed his along his jaw and back to his lips. "Yeah."

He smiled into her mouth. "Thanks."

He rolled her to her back then, very proud of himself that he didn't loose the condom in the process, and settled back inside her, his hips picking up speed as his cock got harder again.

"I think…" he said, "I believe you." He even did. Mostly. The rest, he would figure out later.

"Yeah?" She arched up to capture his lips. "You should."

"Yeah," he said, before he kissed her back.


End file.
